Weekend Box Office: 'Rogue One' Rules the Holiday
by EG
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story did even better than expected over the holiday weekend, drawing far more moviegoers than any of its competitors. The weekend offered more surprises, too, in the form of a better-than-expected weekend for one new release and a disappointing opening for another.
As of early on Christmas Day, Rogue One was on pace to take in somewhere around $110 million over the four-day holiday frame. That's more than twice the take of the second-place film, the animated Sing. But Sing's $51-million take is far from a failure; most predictions had it taking in about half that.
The same can't be said for Passengers, the sci-fi flick starring Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence. The film got poor reviews ahead of its release, and moviegoers don't seem to be interested in it, either. It will pull in about $20 million over the weekend, take third place for the week, and likely turn into one of 2016's bigger bombs.
In fourth place is Assassin's Creed with about $15 million. That's not great, but it's pretty much in line with the low expectations that preceded the movie's release. Also performing in line with low expectations was the week's fifth-place movie Why Him?, which took in about $14 million.